Once you've assembled your choice of individual pieces, it's time to construct the whole.  This section will attempt to address issues pertaining to that.
 
 

Artwork

• Miscellaneous Artwork Links
• Marquee Examples (Opens in new window - warning, big)
• Full sized artwork (Ready to print and put on your project)
• How to produce artwork (Advice from an expert)
• Producing marquees (By Richard Ragon of HotRod!)
• Plexiglass tips
• Plexiglass alternatives

Audio

• Mr Arcade's Fast Inexpensive Amplifier

Layout

• Control Panel Examples
• Templates
• Online Design Tool

Software

• Arcade Jukebox (MP3 player for arcade cabinets, very cool)

Woodwork

• Lanzer's Joystick Building Guide

One thing to consider is how your control panel is going to look.  How many buttons?  How many joysticks?  Spinner?  Etc.  You should consider not only the kinds of controls you are going to have, but how to best place them for playability and comfort.  Since the whole goal of this project is playability, skimping on the planning here would be a bad idea.
 

Control Panel Examples The first suggestion is to look at some actual control panels to see how they are configured.  I've managed to track down many control panel pictures from arcade games, thanks entirely to other people letting me use their pictures.  I've placed them all on the Control Panels page.

Templates Having templates to use helps a lot when laying out your control panel.  On the downloads page, you'll find several templates you can use to help your design. c0nsumer's Control Panel Templates Jack's Visio Stencils Jason's Visio Stencils Also, Expression's Arcade Joystick managed to get a joystick template for Capcom's classic 6 button control panel layout, graciously authorized by Capcom for non-commercial use.  Very cool! -- Note, that link is dead now. Use my mirrors instead: GIF - PDF.

Online Design Tool ArcadeFX's web site is also the home of the Interactive Control Panel Designer, a very cool Flash based control panel design tool.  Very awesome!

Lots of good places to get artwork and inspiration on the net.  Got a good one?  Pass it on!

Miscellaneous Artwork Links

 

Dragon's Den side art Presented by Emucade & Arcaded, a collection of some 100 or so arcade images in Windows Meta File format.

 

Oscar Control's artwork page Oscar Controls has added an artwork section to their page with some very nice control panel and side-art artwork. I particularly liked the joystick diamond/directional arrows. Very nice.

Cory's MAME screenshot marquee

Cory Vigen gave me his blessing to put up a mirror of his MAME marquee :)  Cory has one request and that is if you use his marquee, you do not remove his name from it.  I encourage everyone to respect his wishes in that regard, as he's put a lot of work into it and the name is fairly small.  The file is 2.5 megs *zipped* but looks good :)  See the preview below.


(Click to download marquee - 2.5 megs)

Bear in mind that the above is a thumbnail of a thumbnail!  You can see a larger thumbnail here (167kb).  Lifted from his web page:

 
This is my personal design I made by combining screenshots from some of my favorite games and the MAME logo. This Marquee fits perfectly in the Dungeons and Dragons, Tower of Doom cabinet I bought for $75. The dimensions of the full Marquee are 27" X 7 3/4". I belive this to be a fairly standard size.

The Marquee is split up into three parts. Each section can fit easily on an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper. You can see where the seam is if you look one screenshot to the left or right of the MAME logo. To turn this into a gorgeous looking Marquee for my cabinet, I printed each section on transparency paper, and cut off the excess edges. When I suck them in my cabinet, they looked a little pale, so I printed them off again and then taped the two copies back to back (doubled up) to let less light through. Now they looked perfect. For my the rest of my marquee, I went down to a local glass shop and had them cut a 1/8" thick piece of white acrylic and a 1/8" thick piece of clear Plexiglas matching the dimensions of the Marquee. With the white in back and the clear in front my Marquee looks as good as any professional OEM out there, even better then the D&D one that came with my cabinet. (plus, MAME doesn't emulate D&D the Tower of Doom yet)

I do have an advantage in that I was able to use a $3000 HP 4500 Color Laser printer to print on the transparency paper. The printer does photo quality work, seamless without any of the grainy effect you get with ink jets.

You can use my Marquee all you want, I just ask that you give me some feedback on  what you think and that you don't delete my name from the graphic.

How to produce artwork

Peter E. emailed me a copy of an excellent writeup Tom did on reproducing control panel artwork for arcade cabinets.  This information applies equally well to producing original artwork.  Very big thanks to Tom for giving permission to post this, and to Peter for seeing my request for this kind of information and sending this my way!

---

Now, Control Panel art, there are a few ways to do this, each with its own set of problems.

Option 1:

Scan the image, use PhotoShop or other SW and 'fixup' the Artwork.  Now, take it to a SIGN PRINTER or Kinko's (A Chicago copy firm) and have them print it on a DESIGNJET, any model, this printer is just a BIG DeskJet, then request it to be DRY LAMINATED, and either use 3M 77 or 3M 90 to Glue it to the panel. Expect around $14 a Linear foot charge.  This is generally what you see on the net, its cheap, fast, and looks ok from a distance...

Pros:

Very fast development time, you can print on a DeskJet to QA the art, it will look practically the same when you print it. If you kick up the cost per unit a bit and print on vinyl, it will have the glue on it already.


Cons:

That Printer is a CMYK device, so in order to get some of your colors the computer is forced to 'mix' them, but as you know an inkjet cannot really mix ink, so it pixilates the image, this make the image pretty 'dotty' to the naked eye. I really don't like this process, in some cases you 'have' to do it. On my Tapper overlays, due to the wood grain, I had to. I really dont like the feel of the dry lamination material compared to lexan.


Option 2:

Same process as above, but if you want it on Lexan, (the original
material) find a sign shop that has a GERBER PRINTER (Not the Cutter), they can print on various materials.  I used a thin white plastic and reverse imaged the Tapper art, instead of vinyl. I felt vinyl stretched too much when you applied it and did not have the tensile strength to keep the overlay down long term. I did have them print directly on the lexan but, it was too transparent, didn't look good. Conversely, you probably could laminate the design jet image to lexan by hand, but the gerber does a nicer job of printing a raster image. So I had them hand laminate it to lexan and apply the 'sheet' glue. Expect around $50 for a average overlay...

Pros:

very fast development time, you can print on a DeskJet to QA the art, it will look practically the same when you print it.


Cons.

Expensive, colors are still not perfect(CMYK), image still pixilated.  But the machine can handle color sep layers, but requires more effort on the printer to deal with and usually a higher cost as they need to buy the specific ink (colors) for it, and requires that the operator know how to use the machine. Very few print shops that I went too actually knew how to use the computer attached to the printer. Very frustrating, as I just wanted to push them aside and play with the bugger myself.


Option 3:

REDRAW the art with a Vector based program (Corel, Adobe Illis)
Then you send it out to a company that will provide you color Separations.  Then you give these separations to the printer with the PanTone Color Numbers to EXACT match your colors, they print it directly on the Lexan and apply the glue sheets.

Cons.

Very TIME and $$ extensive to redraw the art, Scans will NOT work.  I've talked with [PE: a retail outlet] in person, and this is how he does it.  You Pay for the color Seps, about  $15 each color, then for the printing process. The Development cycle for me is about 2 months before I get one out... But, Heck, I've got a regular job too...


Pros.

VERY High quality, once you own the separations, you can reuse them, a 1 time expense. This is what I used for my Missile Command Overlays, if you want to see them, www.enteract.com/~twisnion


Option 4:

Then there is DIE cutting, pretty pricey, as a DIE is made for you, I've gotten quoted from $300+ for the missile commands, not worth in in small quantities... I've dropped hope of every having this done....

Excellent information - thanks to Peter and Tom!

Producing marquees - by HotRod

One of the things that makes this hobby truly outstanding in my eyes is the willingness to share information, especially by folks who make money off of it.  In that spirit, I asked Richard of Hanaho/HotRod what he might be willing to share, and he supplied the following.  He warns that this is expensive, and probably impractical for a single person.  However, if a group of folks wanted to go in together . . . :)  Thanks Richard!

Ok, here goes...  The material Hanaho uses is called GE Lexan 10 mil Suede/Mat Polycarbonate.  It comes in clear transparent rolls, and the printers print the graphics (silk screen) on the back side of this.  By printing the graphics on the back it insures that the graphics WILL NOT rub off. Once it's dry a 3m adhesive is added, then cut, packaged and shipped to me.

HotRod Joystick has spent a vast amount of time in research in this to insure that it promotes the 'look and feel' that we want to convey. Exact color matches we're sent to the printers, and a lot of time was put in by the printers to meet our standards.  This specialized surface will not scratch, mark, peel, or wear. (excellent with sweaty palms too)  Printers say they enjoy working with this surface, and claim that it is very easy to produce. The following is a list of printers that I got the best prices from, although I won't say which one I actually choose.
 
 

	Carl Gor Printing
	H N Lookwood
	Visual Marking Systems, Inc.

Kudos to HotRod - thanks Richard!

Plexiglass tips

Once you've produced the ultimate control panel artwork, you need to find a way to protect it.  Thumping hands, spilled drinks, dirt, grease and grime are all the enemy of your masterpiece.  How to protect it?  Plexiglass!  Here are some tips on using plexiglass.
 

Drilling

Question by Kevin747 on our message boards:

 
I am trying to overlay my control panel with plexiglass and I need to drill 3/8 in. and 1 1/8 holes, then cut an aprox 4 in by 4 in. section out of the center. I tried clamping the plexi down, but when I drilled the 3/8 holes it broke. Can someone post how to do this properly? Also, I cut the 4 x 4 section out of an real arcade control panel for a custom fit tracball with a power jigsaw with a metal cutting blade and I have to cut the plexi in the same dimensions. How is this done? Thanks!!!


Answers - Jim M:

 
First I cut all my holes in the 3/4 in wood control panel. I cut 15-1 1/8", 2-1 1/4" and 1 large hole for the Happ trackball. Then I layed the 1/8" plexyglass that I had Home Depo cut to the size of my control panel on the wood control panel. From there, for the holes. I just used a hole saw with the finest teeth I could get. I drilled these very slow. For the trackball square. I used a fine tooth jig saw blade and cut it very slow.  A couple times I cut to fast and the glass got too hot and melted back tougher, so I cut it very slow. Then I took a round file and cleaned up the edges.  One thing I did do first was drill the screw holes for the joysticks and secure the plexglass to the panel so that it woulden't slip. I think the key to it is cutting slow. I had to be sure to cut the glass in the exact spot as the holes in the wood.......


Another answer - matt(v):
 

For small holes (carrage bolt size) you can actually get a special drill made specifically for drilling plexiglass.  It has two tiny flat faces cut into the tip and when you use it (properly) you should get two long ribbons of plexi coming out of the hole.  Don't know where you can get one, maybe the same place you got your plexiglass?  You could also put a normal drill in reverse and try to melt through.

For larger holes (button size) the proper way to do this is to buy a "circle cutter" -- they are adjustable from around 1/2 inch to about 4 inches.  It consists of one central drill and a sliding blade that you adjust to the correct radius of your hole.  They make really neat accurate holes but must be used in a drill press and must NEVER be used on anything except plexiglass.  They are also quite expensive.  The cheap way to do this is to buy a holesaw with small teeth and have someone pour cutting fluid on while you drill.  Alternatively you may want to put the drill in reverse and melt your way through.
Either way, be sure to clamp it before you go to work.

Here is a link to a mirror of probably the best plexiglass working page on the net - RandyFromm.com's Working With Plexiglass.


Yet another - Brian:
 

I used a hole saw for the 1 1/8 holes and ran it in reverse to melt through the plexiglass.  You don't even have to go slow with it since it's going in reverse and just melting the plexiglass. For the smaller holes I just used a regular drill bit and went VERY slow until I was through. It worked out really well and there were no cracks at all in my plexiglass.


One more  - Bill Connolly:

 
I made a sandwich, scrap piece of wood, plexiglass, control panel particle board, scrap piece of wood.  I clamped the sandwich together with 6 c clamps and drilled in forward with a 1 1/8" drill bit slowly. I used a brand new bit to make sure it was sharp. This prevented my plexiglass and control panel board from getting rough entry and exit cuts from the drilling, the top and bottom scrap took the hits.

Plexiglass alternatives

There are alternatives to using plexiglass!
 
 

Lexan

Posted by Kevin747 on our message boards:
 

When I went back to the store to buy more plexiglass I saw sheets of Lexan (bullet proof guys...) and for about $2.00 to $3.00 more bought the Lexan. THis stuff is great! You can drill, cut, dynamite, hit with a hammer, etc. this stuff and it wont break! Works great

Lanzer's Joystick Building Guide is an excellent site to visit to get some tips on woodworking in a joystick project.  He goes into some detail on button installation, joystick installation, preparing and assembling the wood for the panel, etc.  He has many pictures to illustrate the process as well.

Mark's Arcade Jukebox This is an .MP3 player designed for arcade cabinets.  Very cool project.  From their web page:   Why ? The original Arcade Jukebox was written out of frustration.  I had searched the web for a MP3 jukebox program for my MAME arcade cabinet ARCADE PLANET.  All of the programs I found either needed a mouse, looked horrible on a television or someone wanted to charge me to use it.   First there was Arcade Jukebox.  It had limitations to say the least.  i.e. all mp3s had to be into the program directory, no scan by letter, ect .  I released it, people used it, people made suggestion.  Next came Arcade Jukebox 2, Used  config file. Better but not quite right.  Then came Arcade Jukebox 3.  It allows page up/down by letter, recurse down by one directory,  bubbles. Last but not least came Arcade Jukebox 4. It features: Select a background or make your own Full recursion, i.e. if you set your mp3 directory to “C:\” it will search your entire hard drive for MP3s. Depending on the size of your hard drive this could take a while. Custom layout.jpg. Instead of an instructions.txt file you can now create a jpg of your control panel that will come up when you hit the help key.  Makes the controls very easy to understand. Select between free play and vend mode.  In vend mode you can select what key gives credits and how many credits you get per coin. Now shows 18 songs instead of 12. You can now set the Exit key. Comes in 800x600 and 640x480.


 

Lanzer's Joystick Building Guide is an excellent site to visit to get some tips on woodworking in a joystick

MAFIA - Mr. Arcade's Fast Inexpensive Amplifier

Mr. Arcade has an "inexpensive, fast, and simple way to amplify the sound output of a pc through an existing arcade speaker. ... All that is required is a cheapo set of amplified pc speakers and some electrical tape."

Very cool - thanks Ron!